Big Four Carriers Form New Mobile Payment Initiative

AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile USA, and Verizon Wireless have joined a new task force called the Mobile Payments Committee. The Mobile Payments Committee was formed by the Electronic Transactions Association trade group, and is chaired by Jackie Moran, Verizon's executive director of federal relations. The task force has three main goals. The first is to smooth out the business relationships and technical challenges needed to make mobile payment systems interoperable. The second is to help lawmakers and regulators to put the necessary legislation and policy in place to protect both the players involved and the public. The third is to help educate consumers and retailers about the positive facets of payments made with mobile devices. In addition to the four largest network operators in the U.S., the Mobile Payment Committee also boasts Google, ISIS, PayPal, Verifone, and Intuit as members. "The idea behind the committee is to get all the players around the table, ask everyone to take off their company hats and put on their industry hats, and talk about what issues need to be resolved," said ETA CEO Jason Oxman. The committee's first meeting is scheduled to take place later this month.

So does T-Mobile and AT&T, as far as I know. At least for anything non-Galaxy-Nexus. I assume that's actually why they want to be a part of this coalition, so that their insecurities about the system can be addressed, and they can be protected. Whe...(continues)

Was it really necessary to create a new lobbying organization for this rather than have CTIA take this issue under their umbrella? Eventually all the small fry carriers will be clamoring to join and you'll just have a redundant organization.